Four at TAMU-T earn awards for best history research papers
Four students were honored this week as winners of the 2012 Bennie Walthall Award for the best research papers written in Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana history courses.
Thanks to a grant by the late Dr. Bennie Walthall of Texarkana, Ark., the university awarded a total of $1,000 in prize money, and the College of Education and Liberal Arts presented each winner with a certificate, officials said
Corinne Billings of Texarkana, Texas, won $300 for the Best Graduate History Paper Award for “Pol Pot: Disappointment Leads to Destruction?”
The Second Best Graduate History Paper Award and $200 went to Michael Touchstone of Paris, Texas, for “The Ritual Sacrifices of the Aztecs.”
Ryan Cobb’s “The Effect of the Trans-Siberian Railway on the Russo-Japanese War” earned the Best Undergraduate History Paper Award and $300. A former Texarkana resident, Cobb lives in Conway, Ark.
The Second Best Undergraduate History Paper Award and $200 went to Alana Briley of Texarkana, Texas, for “Exploring the Negro Family— An Analytical Essay on Patrick Moynihan’s The Negro Family: A Case for National Action.”
The contest only considered graduate papers that were a minimum of 2,000 words, including documentation, and had a minimum of five sources, four of which were primary documents or peer-reviewed articles or books. Undergraduate papers had to have a minimum of 1,200 words, including documentation, and have a minimum of four sources, three of which were primary documents or peer-reviewed articles or books.
Walthall earned several degrees from TAMU-T, including a degree in history. He had already obtained a doctorate in geology before becoming a student at Texarkana, and he worked as an oil-industry geologist who traveled all over the world, said Dr. Michael Perri, associate professor of history.